themadone

Went to my reading group last night to discuss "The Left Hand of Darkness". Bit of a marmite book - some people liked it, some people didn't. Seems every month now we're getting new folk show up too, which is good as fresh opinions liven things up.

Due to beeblebear's choice (Towing Johah(sp?)) being totally out of print in the UK and not being able to get copies from the US, we found ourselves having to resort to picking a book quickly to read this month. So turning to the Hugo awards, we scanned through the list and ended up picking Little Brother, which I admittedly read only a few months ago, but it's such a mighty read, that I'm going to read it again. And then cos we had the list up still, we picked The Graveyard Book for the month after.

This means I have a 3 in 5 chance of having read a Hugo winner this year, as we read Charlie Stross' Saturn's Children some time last year. And given the other 2 nominees, I think I could easily read at least a 4th too, cos I like Scalzi's other books.

Also last night majic13 decided to drag himself out of his pit to visit us all at the pub and to pimp out his dead-tree edition of Dark Places. Not too unsuprisingly, we ended up with at least 20 folk turn up. Which was good but it's a shame we can't get those kinds of numbers without having to resort to majic13 bringing his milkshake. On the plus side it might convince the students who did show up to turn up more often though. Which in turn might mean we get more students interested in appearing next term/year.

I now have the fun job of working out a way of adding the copy of The Well of Stars I got for the library and tying it into majic13's profile rather than adding him as a seperate author. Cos otherwise, it'll replace his name with a link to the author rather than to him in the wiki(ish) bits of the site.

Technically we've just had the first official IFIS Thursday pub night for almost a year. Not only did we have 2 students turn up (bogadalas doesn't count as he hasn't joined in ages). Not only were they freshers. But they were actual living breathing members of the committee! :O

And what is even more shocking, is that they're planning on coming again next week. So I was thinking, maybe we should make next Thursday another one of those planned Thursdays where loads of people show up? People like majic13 and the like? It's kind of short notice, but I figure people should be able to get their butts in gear by then?

Just in case folk have forgotten already, we'll not have the full run of the pub tonight as part of it is booked by some society or other.

And next week a bunch of folk we haven't seen in ages are showing up.

So...which pub are we going to tonight? Cos there's no way I want to be anywhere near my work's BBQ.

EDIT: Nevermind - I've found an excuse not to go. Heading up for goodbye drinks for gmplatypus at the Man.

Last night was different. Obviously different because it was a different pub, but also different because we some how managed to attract a couple of randoms too. Nice folk. Pretty one off random of them being in the pub, so I doubt we'll see much of them in the future if at all.

Otherwise, the pub was...very muted. It's a lot larger than what we're used to, but it had roughly the same number of people in it. So we rattled about quite a bit. We nabbed the sofas which aren't really practical for eating or drinking in, but they're very comfy. Food was nearly a disaster as apparently they were planning on starting evening food next week, but we some how managed to convince them to start early.

I went for the steak. It showed up a tad under cooked. I wanted it medium but I'd have called it rare. Maybe even a tad blue even. The landlord gave me a free drink to apoligise though. I suspect the cook doesn't know how to cook steaks properly based on this guide on wikipedia. Still, for a rare steak it wasn't too bad, I just wasn't in the mood for a plate swimming in blood.

So, that was the last night of the pub under the current management. No more cute barmaid providing amusing conversation and bringing us our drinks over. I'm kinda dreading next week cos we're temporarily going to be a bit too close to home...or rather work. Hopefully my cow-orkers aren't too embaressing. And then (hopefully) the week after, we get to see what a mess the new owners have made of the place. Apparently it's going to involve sofas which has us a little confused - the pub is far too small for sofas. I guess we'll see.

My RSS feed gizmo seems to be a lot easier to manage with just the BBC RSS feeds. If I add any new feeds in future, I might have to be more stringent with what feeds I choose.

I managed to escape relatively unscathed last night. Only real trauma is the news that the lovely barmaid we've managed to build up quite a good rappo with is going to quit in a few weeks time when the new folk take over. Um...yeah. New folk are apparently taking over. I'd kinda realised that the last "new folk" had mysteriously gone without a word said. That was obvious by the lack of annoying brat. But they'd covered that up by getting the bar bloke to take over.

I'm hoping the new folk are going to be somewhat decent, but by the sounds of it they're not. Or at least TLB thinks they're not going to be that great to work for, hence why she's quitting when they start. But on the plus side she's said she'll pop up and visit on Thursdays. Sit on our side of the bar for a change. Not that it's not stopped her before.

Hopefully today at work will go quickly. I have much plotting for Mage to do for next week. Muaahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaha.

Pub was good last night. I also realised why the menu is changing - they've ditched/lost the aging cook. I had wondered where she was last week, but well it being summer it's perfectly feasible for her to be on holiday. But this week I noticed they'd scrubbed her name off the menu where she's named as the creator of the homemade burgers. Which they've also run out of too.

I wonder whether she was pushed or if she jumped. I wonder if the guy they've got doing it is temporary or not. I guess I'll find out when I get back off holiday.

I wonder how many folk are pondering us changing pub after last night? Dear gods that child was obnoxious. Shame we couldn't throw him onto the roof after his nerf rocket. I think I'm going to lurk inside next week if he's outside - it's probably a lot safer for my sanity that way.